I started this thread to find others who are following the Volumetrics life plan and those who are interested in learning about it. We can share our experience, strength and hope with each other.

I have been a life long yo yo dieter and I have tried most of the diet plans. I had settled on calorie counting but remembered vaguely something about a book that my DIL had on a plan called Volumetrics. All I thought I remembered was it had something to do with Calorie Density (Energy Density) of foods and that you could eat more of the low Calorie dense foods and still lose weight.

With that tiny bit of information I started changing my Dinner with an eye to calorie density but my lunch remained traditional meat, starch, veggy but calorie controlled.

I started experimenting with no real knowledge of Volumetrics by taking a can of Progresso Light soup and adding two cans of no salt added green beans along with some hot sauce. Now this was a huge quantity of food but low in calories. After eating I felt full and for the first time I can remember I did not continually snack all evening. Wow!! Volumetrics might work for me.

I ordered two books and I am halfway through the first one. This eating plan makes sense to me as a lifestyle that I could do. And each evening I am amazed that I am full instead of hungry and I just lost another 3 pounds.

Any others out there in 3FC land?

__________________My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people. ~Orson Welles

Hi Larry H. I have a book on Volumetrics and it always made sense to me. I'm currently doing Intuitive Eating with WW pts +, but reading your message helped me to realize why I was losing weight easier when I first started WW. I was doing a form of Volumetrics and didn't even think about it, because I was making loads of soups that I drank at suppertime. Taking Progresso and adding the low cal veggies is a supper way of doing that. On WW the low cal (non starchy) veggies are freebies and since they stress eating your veggies and fruits, the soup was an easy way to get those veggies into my diet with 0 pts.

It was much easier to do that with the cold weather than when it is warmer. Thanks for the reminder. I will have to get my book out and look at it again and put the soups back into my way of eating.

__________________

I cannot do this on my own, but I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.

When I make chili or stew, I throw in a lot of additional vegetables so that it's mostly vegetable and smaller amounts of starch or meat.

I use either zucchini noodles (noodles made of zucchini) or fine green beans as a pasta, top with sauce and cheese or I make a small serving of pasta and mix it with sauteed vegetables before topping it with sauce.

I love to eat stir fry or "noodle" bowls with either no starch or a tiny amount of rice sticks or rice and the rest vegetables and protein.

If I ever eat some kind of sandwich or wrap, it is often stuffed with broccoli slaw or regular slaw, sprouts, cucumbers, tomatoes, or a lot of kale or spinach.

Sauteed cabbage is great to top with a fried egg, or some kind of sauced fish or chicken. If just the cabbage is weird, it can be delicious mixed with rice and served as a side.

pattygirl63 It is great to see someone else doing similar. The Volumetrics book says chunky soups give us better satiety. In addition to green beans I often add corn or peas but have to be mindful of calories in those. I also love to add no salt added canned mushrooms. I have not tried carrots yet but that is on my to do list.

Munchy You have given me many great ideas. It is so encouraging to see that you have been eating this way for 5-6 years and see your weight loss. That has reaffirmed my opinion that this can be a life style for me. How do you make zucchini noodles? Are they better than spaghetti squash? I love to cook and experiment.

The Volumetrics book is jam packed with suggestions for lowering the energy density of meals while maintaining satiety or the feeling of being full. While reading yesterday in the book I came across a suggestion to add 10 oz of water to casseroles to make a chunky soup and lower the energy density. That was kind of an AHA moment for me. Then I started thinking. I love eating comfort foods made with Hamburger Helper but the ingredients are loaded with sodium and calories. Lately I have been making several homemade healthier hamburger helpers. Such as the one in this link.

I thought, why not turn this into a chunky soup by adding 10 oz of water as suggested by the Volumetrics Book. Then I can eat more while staying in my calorie allowance. I have not tried this yet but I intend to sometime this week.

__________________My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people. ~Orson Welles

Larry, I've actually done that and made a soup out of a casserole serving! I would suggest taking that hamburger helper and adding in a small diced zucchini and/or chopped mushrooms, peppers, or maybe a bunch of spinach. They are very mild and lend well to tomato/Italian flavors.

I have a noodler that I bought off of amazon, but if you don't, you can use a peeler to make zucchini noodles. I love spaghetti squash, but not as a replacement for pasta - it's too sweet. If I'm making a light alfredo (adobo, skim milk, and neufchatel cheese), or topping with marinara, I prefer zucchini. If I'm making spaghetti squash, I use it as I use other squash. I'm actually making it tomorrow with mushrooms and chopped tomato and a bit of white wine!

Last night for dinner I sauteed 1/3 of a green pepper, two scallions, and 4oz of sliced mushrooms with a sliced spicy Italian chicken sausage. I added about 1/2 cup of homemade marinara, 1T light sour cream, and 1T romano cheese and topped the bowl with capers and fresh basil. It was a huge and delicious bowl for 277 calories.

Munchy Your dinner sounded delicious as does the picture of the spaghetti squash. Do you have any idea what the calorie count of that spaghetti squash recipe is? I really enjoy reading about what you are eating on this plan. I get so many ideas.

I have made some change in the direction of Volumetrics to breakfast. First, after reading the Volumetrics book I started eating breakfast. I have always been one of those obese breakfast skippers. Second, instead of eggs, toast, home fries and sausage. I had 1 cup of original Fiber One cereal (which is a double serving). To this I added one Sweet N Low packet and I sliced up three large strawberries into it. The third change was to change from 2% milk to skim milk. I ended up with a large bowl of cereal that tasted really good and was only 198 calories. As a bonus I got 29 grams of fiber from breakfast. I also had coffee (a must have food). I learned to enjoy my coffee Black with NO creamer or sweetener while serving in the US Navy.

__________________My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people. ~Orson Welles

Your breakfast sounds nice and filling! I actually miss my black coffee. After over 18 years of daily super strong "sludge" I cut it out around June to see if it helped with indigestion. It immediately did! I cut gluten at the same time, so the two of those really improved any bothersome symptoms and I no longer needed my two daily antacids.

The spaghetti squash recipe as linked is 255 per serving (2 servings) including the optional cheese.

Tomorrow's dinner will likely be turkey pumpkin chili that I have frozen in containers. I love any chili and usually make my own recipes as I go, but I have been stuck on the whole foods recipe. The pumpkin makes it so creamy and thick!

I am too low on calories only 770 but I can't eat any more because I am very full. I am finding that I have to be very careful with Volumetrics to eat enough calories. It is way too easy to fill up on the low energy dense foods and end up low on calories.

I just finished reading the Volumetrics book last night and am starting today or tomorrow (depends if I get to the store today). I've been hearing about calorie density for a while now and I have been doing a plan that has been low fat for a while, but still eating quite a bit of bread, crackers, etc. So I revamped my menu last night so that it includes more foods with lower calorie density. I'm a vegan, so that helps to find foods that are more CD.

One thing I didn't quite get that wasn't really explained well in the book (I bought the first one because it's cheaper and I don't have much money now) is, why is the caloric density of cereal much lower when milk is added? For example, 1 cup of Honey Nut Cheerios, according to the chart, is something like 3.0 CD without milk but with 1/2 cup milk it goes down to 1.1. Since it's the exact same amount of cereal, I don't get why it's supposed to be so much lower if milk is added.

Tam

__________________Holistic healthy living is not just about food and exercise - it's about the whole person, body, mind, and spirit

I just finished reading the Volumetrics book last night and am starting today or tomorrow (depends if I get to the store today). I've been hearing about calorie density for a while now and I have been doing a plan that has been low fat for a while, but still eating quite a bit of bread, crackers, etc. So I revamped my menu last night so that it includes more foods with lower calorie density. I'm a vegan, so that helps to find foods that are more CD.

One thing I didn't quite get that wasn't really explained well in the book (I bought the first one because it's cheaper and I don't have much money now) is, why is the caloric density of cereal much lower when milk is added? For example, 1 cup of Honey Nut Cheerios, according to the chart, is something like 3.0 CD without milk but with 1/2 cup milk it goes down to 1.1. Since it's the exact same amount of cereal, I don't get why it's supposed to be so much lower if milk is added.

Tam

Calorie density is calculated by dividing the calories in the food by the weight in grams of the food. For example I have a box of Fiber Active from Walmart. The nutrition label says a serving is 30g and contains 60 calories. Divide 60 by 30 and the calorie density is 2.

Now if I add 1 cup of skim milk (or any other milk) 1 cup of skim milk weighs 240g. I just weighed it on my kitchen scale. 1 Cup of skim has 90 calories.

When I add it to the cereal I now have a combination food (Cereal and milk)
which when combined weighs 270g and has 150 calories. I divide 150 calories by 270g weight and now my calorie density for the combined food is .56 this is way lower from the original Calorie density of the cereal by it self which was 2

__________________My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people. ~Orson Welles

I am too low on calories only 770 but I can't eat any more because I am very full. I am finding that I have to be very careful with Volumetrics to eat enough calories. It is way too easy to fill up on the low energy dense foods and end up low calories.

Yep, I can easily eat 500 calories in a day.
Today I had an egg and a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

In the Volumetrics book it says "To drop weight, pick up your soup spoon"

You certainly have embraced that concept However 648 Calories is way too low. I understand why as I have had that problem also but most experts say we need at least 1200 calories to get proper nutrition.

Another entry in the book says "Don't even think of living on just soup"
Barbara Rolls suggests soup as the first course so that we eat less. Not consistently the only item in a meal.

I am not picking on you Munchy, I have the same problem. We just have to learn how to increase our calories.

Never thought I would say that

__________________My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people. ~Orson Welles

In the Volumetrics book it says "To drop weight, pick up your soup spoon"

You certainly have embraced that concept However 648 Calories is way too low. I understand why as I have had that problem also but most experts say we need at least 1200 calories to get proper nutrition.

Another entry in the book says "Don't even think of living on just soup"
Barbara Rolls suggests soup as the first course so that we eat less. Not consistently the only item in a meal.

I am not picking on you Munchy, I have the same problem. We just have to learn how to increase our calories.

Never thought I would say that

Oh, I know - I'm positive that it's why I can't seem to lose these 10lbs. I am in love with soup, though - it's inexpensive, easy to freeze and prep on weekends, and it's healthy. Soup has been my favorite food since I was a toddler!

I actually worked with an RD/Nutritionist/BSN who had me work on adding calories to a more normal amount of 1400. Because I'm so used to the low calories, I gained about 15lbs and quickly! After I was told that I was obese by another doctor (my BMI was 26), I quit working with the RD.